Trading off money for free time within households. A gendered analysis of cooperative conflicts. Jerome De Henau San Francisco, January 03, 2009

2 Motivation Inequality within households is a crucial yet under- researched issue in understanding the persistence of gender and other inequalities in well-being, capabilities and life chances Implementation of Sen’s framework of cooperative conflicts (1990)  Cooperation to increase household resources  Conflict over division of resources between hh members Entitlement to household resources: legitimate command over current and future material resources (to pursue one’s own goals and expand set of capabilities) Understanding the role of perceptions (gendered factors)

3 Underlying assumptions Time and money are substitutes Entitlements are potential access to resources in time and money, –not observable  use individual answers to questions on satisfaction with household income and amount of leisure time (from British Household Panel Survey ) –Satisfaction with time and money are positively correlated Partners’ satisfaction with time and money may differ because: –Different personality / individual invariant characteristics –Different perceptions of costs and benefits (use of resources) –Different entitlements (access to resources)

4 Method Sample: British Household Panel Survey: male-female couples of working age ( , except 2001) Fixed-effect estimations (control for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity such as personality traits), treating satisfaction score as a cardinal variable (Ferrer-i-Carbonell and Frijters 2004) Triple objective: –Examine effects on sum and difference of satisfaction scores (resp. between-hh and within-hh entitlements) –Decompose effects of individual variables on each into symmetric (non-gendered) and gendered components –Compare results for income and time satisfaction

5 Variables Our model includes –Log of annual real gross household income, –Source of income (investment, benefit, transfers) –Home ownership –Number and age of children (0-4, 5-11, 12+) –Earning more than 75% of total earnings –Potential earnings (Essex score): log of estimated hourly wage –employment status (ref. full-time): part-time, inactive, unemployed, disabled –Subjective health –Hours of housework Controlling for: –Partners’ overall score of satisfaction with life –Years

6 Symmetric and gendered effects Employment of either partner increases (decreases) access to income (leisure) for both Employment of either partner (relative to other) increases (decreases) their individual satisfaction (rel. to other) Man’s employment contributes more to increase hh resources than woman’s Man’s employment empowers him more than woman’s employment empowers her On cooperative aspects of entitlements On conflictual aspects of entitlements Individual characteristics Household characteristics Shared views (children net cost on common resources) Difference in views (children more the woman’s burden) Non-gendered effect Gendered effect

7 Results for Satisfaction with hh income Earnings inequality (+) Potential wage (+) Full-time employment (+) Housework (-) Potential wage (+) Full-time employment (+) Housework (-) Earnings inequality (- man / + woman) Non employment (- man / + woman) Earnings inequality (- man / + woman) On cooperative aspects of entitlements (sum of Satis.) On conflictual aspects of entitlements (diff. in Satis.) Individual characteristics Household characteristics Income and assets (+) Children 0-4 (-)Children 0-4 (+ man / - woman) Non-gendered effect Gendered effect

8 Results for Satisfaction with leisure time Earnings inequality (+) Potential wage (+) Full-time employment (-) Housework (-) Earnings inequality (+) Potential wage (+) Full-time employment (-) Housework (+) Earnings inequality Non employment Step children (+ man / woman Earnings inequality (- man / + woman) Non employment (- man / + woman) Housework (+ man / - woman) On cooperative aspects of entitlements (sum of Satis.) On conflictual aspects of entitlements (diff. in Satis.) Individual characteristics Household characteristics Income and assets (+) Children 0-4 and 5-11 (-)Children 0-4 (+ man / - woman) Non-gendered effect Gendered effect

9 Comparison Main similarities across domains: –Young children depress both leisure and income, and more so for women (through effect is much stronger for leisure than for income) –Earnings inequality empowers more the woman in both income and leisure entitlements (Bargaining power? Specific constraints of low income households?) Main differences across domains: –Income less important to leisure –Employment and housework opposite effects –Women more satisfied if non employment in hh than men, but less if more housework (  contradiction), no such result for income entitlement. More forced leisure for men than for women

10 Discussion Results show persistent gender roles (man’s employment more important, children more woman’s sphere) Conflictual views are quite important (in both domains)  household is not unitary, neither egalitarian (fairness of allocation of time and resources differ between partners) Contrasting effects on both domains (is satisfaction with each domain good proxy for entitlements to resources, which would improve capabilities?) –Satisfaction with use of leisure follows similar pattern than satisfaction with amount of leisure time

11 Discussion (2) Policy implications? –If objective is subjective well-being, how to combine contradicting effects of employment on leisure and income satisfaction? What is the priority?  Leisure satisfaction less important to overall satisfaction than income satisfaction (not true for use of leisure).  But we don’t know to what extent subjective well-being is to be pursued (Sen’s and Nussbaum’s critique) –If objective is expansion of capabilities, how to deal with contradicting effects of unemployment on each domain –If objective is gender equality, careful to balance allocation without reinforcing gender roles?  perhaps, looking at policies that would help transform gender roles and perceptions (equal pay, paternity leave, shorter full-time working hours for both)